


Storytime

by BookGirlFan



Series: Children of Watership Down [8]
Category: Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Friends as Family, Orphans, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 06:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6184237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookGirlFan/pseuds/BookGirlFan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strawberry has some questions he wants answered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storytime

"Silver," Strawberry began one quiet afternoon, as he and Silver were dusting in the library, "do you mind me being here?"

The older boy looked at him curiously. "No. You're helping."

Strawberry shook his head, not looking at him. "No, I mean here, with you guys. Is it okay that I came with you?"'

Silver looked at him in confusion, making Strawberry sigh, shaking his head. "Never mind, it's not important."

"If it wasn't important, you wouldn't have said it," Silver reasoned. "So what did you mean?"

"I just meant-" Strawberry started. "Just, you guys are close, and have obviously known each other for ages, while I don't know anything about you! I didn't even know Fiver's only eight! I just tagged along because I wanted to get away from Cowslip." He looked down, slightly embarrassed to have revealed so much. 

A moment later, he was shocked to have two arms wrap around him. "We like you being here, Strawberry. You're part of the family now. Even if you haven't known us long, you've been there when it counted."

"Yeah, but-" Strawberry squirmed out of the hug to face Silver. "I only met you guys a couple of weeks ago!"

Silver shrugged. "Bigwig's the only one I've known for long. The others, I've only really known them a bit longer than you." Seeing the shock on Strawberry's face, he grinned. "Ask them. I think you'd be surprised." Turning back to his cleaning, he missed the look of resolve that overtook Strawberry's face. Yes, he would ask them! He began dusting the shelves again, deciding that as soon as his chores were finished, he was going to go corner Blackberry and ask him some questions. After all, he snorted, they couldn't really have known each other for such a short time as Silver had said!

***

"Hey Blackberry!"

Blackberry turned around as Strawberry skidded to a stop beside him. "Hey, Strawberry. Something wrong?"

Strawberry fiddled with his glasses, taking them off and cleaning them before putting them back on again. "No, I just wanted to ask you something."

Blackberry looked at him expectantly, making the taller boy squirm. "Just, I haven't known you guys very long, right? So I just wanted to ask, how long have you known each other?"

Blackberry chewed his lip, considering it. "I've known Acorn since he came to the orphanage when I was seven, but we weren't really friends until Dandelion came eight months later. Bigwig was around for most of that time, but he was Owsla. Silver had only been there about a year when we left, and Hazel and Fiver only four months." He smiled. "It's weird, thinking we've known each other such a short time. Feels like I've known them forever now."

Strawberry gaped at him. "Four months? I thought you must have known each other for ages! Wait-" He frowned, adjusting his glasses. "Did you say orphanage?"

The shorter boy looked at him, puzzled. "Uh, yeah. We're all orphans. We ran away from the orphanage together."

"You were in an orphanage? And then you ran off with kids you just said you barely knew?" Strawberry' mouth dropped open again. "But why?"

Blackberry smiled sheepishly. "It sounds crazy when you put it like that."

"Because it is."

"Maybe, but it made sense at the time, and it landed us here, so it can't be too bad. Look, I'm really not the best one to ask this story, I'm more of a facts guy than fables. Ask Dandelion, he'd never pass up the chance to tell a story."

***

"And then, from the treetops, we saw three figures coming out of the bushes. We stayed quiet, wondering if they were friends or enemies. Then, they came close enough to recognize then, and we saw that our friends had returned, and they had brought with them the boy from the house of horrors! That was you," Dandelion added. "You know the rest of the story from there."

Strawberry just stared at him, eyes wide. An awkward silence fell, followed by Dandelion waving a hand in front of Strawberry's face. Finally, Strawberry's eyes snapped back into focus, centred straight on Dandelion. "You really did all that?"

Dandelion nodded. 

"Okay, wow." Strawberry took a deep breath. "That is amazing. I mean, I thought you guys were just runaways or something, like me. I've seen some do that, you know, just find a group and stay together, like Pepper, he did that, you know, before he came to the mansion, and stayed with his group three years. I thought you'd done something like that, I never thought you were actually orphans, not runaways, but you ran away from the orphanage, so are you still runaways, or is that-" Strawberry's stream of babble was cut off by Dandelion's hand over his mouth. 

"You might not want to go on about the whole orphans thing, okay?" The blonde said. "For me, it's been four years since my parents died, and it still hurts. For Hazel and Fiver, it hasn't even been six months. Just, be nice."

Strawberry nodded frantically, Dandelion's hand still over his mouth. He mumbled something. 

"What was that?" Dandelion took his hand away.

"Okay, yeah, I'll be nice. I'm sorry, I didn't even think about it." He laughed mournfully. "I guess I just keep getting surprised by how much I don't know about you guys. I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone now."

Dandelion watched the other boy walk off, his brow creased in thought. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything."

***

Strawberry went into his room and flopped down on the bed, dejected. He thought finding out more about the others would make him feel better, but instead it just made him feel even more left out! They had a whole adventure together, escaping from their orphanage to find a better place, while he was just a runaway who had tagged along because he was too much of a coward to stay behind. 

A knock on the doorframe pulled him out of his melancholy. Looking up, he saw Hazel standing there, looking hesitant. "Are you alright, Strawberry? You seem a bit upset, and the others said you were asking questions about us. Is something the matter?"

Strawberry smiled weakly. "Nothing's wrong, Hazel. Just curious."

"Okay." For a moment, it looked like Hazel was going to leave it at that, but then he came and sat down beside Strawberry on the bed. "Just because some of us have known each other longer than you doesn't mean you aren't as important. You know that, right?"

Strawberry blinked. Put it like that, it sounded so obvious. Slowly, a smile grew on his face. "Thanks, Hazel." Spontaneously, he turned to give the younger boy a hug. "I think I needed to hear that."


End file.
